


Chosen

by Curlyhairedmermaid



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV), Original Work
Genre: Doesn't actually have the criminal minds cast it is just based on one of the episodes so sors, F/M, Freshman Year, High School, Isolation, Kidnapping, Stalking, Stockholm Syndrome, i'll update tags as i go?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2019-06-14 01:47:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15377985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Curlyhairedmermaid/pseuds/Curlyhairedmermaid
Summary: "It's been 5 days since Sarah Hensen, a 13 year old girl from Athens, Indiana, went missing."Emma Is just the average girl. Quiet, introverted, and starting her freshman year. Everything gets turned upside down when she gets kidnapped.(Doesn't actually have the criminal minds cast it is just based on one of the episodes)((I write pretty slow so sorry. I'll be updating when I can))





	1. Chapter 1

"It's been 5 days since Sarah Hensen, a 13-year-old girl from Athens, Indiana, went missing. The Amber Alert is still out for her. Sarah has brown hair, green eyes, is five foot one. and was last seen walking home from school with two neighbors. Her parents and two younger sisters were found dead in their home the night Sarah went missing. If you have any information on Sarah's disappearance or location, or you have information on the murder of her family, please contact the police at..." 

"Emma," My mom called up the stairs. "The bus is going to be here soon!" Her feet tapped up the stairs. 

"Just a second!" I responded. I shoved my binder into my bag and looked around the room for anything I forgot. 

Mom knocked and opened my door, a smile splitting her face. "Excited for your first day?"  

I grasped my necklace. "I'm ready for it." My stomach flipped over. 

Mom surveyed my room. "Your room certainly looks ready. There's not a thing out of place! Why can't you do this to the rest of the house?" She playfully nudged my shoulder.  

I shrugged. "Okay, okay. I should go." 

"Sure you don't want me to drive you?" 

"Yeah. It's the same route as middle school, after all. Not a big deal." 

We walked downstairs together. "You be careful today. Say please and thank you, be nice to your teachers, listen in class, make friends--" 

"I have friends already, mom." 

"You can always have more."  

I shrugged again.  

"Fine, go." She gently pushed me at the door. "I love you!" 

"I love you too." I closed the door. Despite the warm day outside, I felt very cold. I grasped the straps of my bag and rounded the corner to the bus stop. There was already a mass of seven or so students on the driveway of some poor person's house. I stood a distance away from the rest of them.  A couple of small groups hummed with conversation while another couple loners stood quiet like me. I stared at my feet until I could hear the metal groaning of the bus coming to rest in front of us. 

I followed the line shuffling onto the bus and swung into a seat. My teeth smacked together over bumps on the short ride to the school.  The sunbeams came over the hulking structure right into my eyes. Rodchester High. The throngs of students chattered as they followed each other into the modern looking glass paned structure.  

I pushed myself through the conglomerates of students blocking the paths in the hall to get to the locker given to me the week before. As I struggled with the lock, a dark brown haired boy slid in the spot next to me and opened his lock without a problem.  

I bit my lip and looked at the floor before asking, "Hey do you think you could help me with mine?" I raised my head to look back at him. 

He turned to look at me, then looked around him. "Me?" He asked softly. 

I nodded. "I can't get it to open." I motioned at the locker in front of me and handed him the small slip of paper that had my combination on it. He glanced at it for a moment before twirling the lock, hitting the locker in several places. It popped open easy for him. I stared at him, eyebrows raised. "T-thank you." 

He dismissed my gratitude with a flick of his wrist and went back into his locker.  

I busied myself with unloading my backpack and weighing myself down with various journals and supplies I needed. First and second hour were both terrifying. New people, new teachers, new place. So many new faces that didn't come over from my middle school. 

Third hour  I sat down next to a semi-familiar face. His hair was swept off to the side to stay out of his face while his head was pointed down to his notebook, eyebrows drawn in concentration. I peeked over his shoulder to get an eyeful of what he was looking at. I could only make out a lot of line drawings and some scribbles in the margins before he caught me looking.  

He snapped the book shut and bit his lip, face blushing.  

"Hey, I didn't get your name earlier. When you helped me open my lock—thanks again by the way. I'm Emma." I stuck out my hand and smiled at him, hoping he didn't see how hard it was shaking. He glanced at my hand then back to me before shaking it tentatively.  

"Andy." He pulled away.  

Eager to keep the conversation rolling, I asked, "Are you new here? I don't think I've seen you before." 

His eyes darted away from mine. "I-I was homeschooled before this. This school is so big. So much bigger than I expected.." He trailed off. 

I smiled softly. "It's even big for me and I've been going to public school my whole life. I can't imagine what this must be like for you. Do you know anyone here? Play sports or participate in clubs with any of the people?" 

He shook his head slowly. "No. We don't—didn't—live close. Close to anything really. Middle of nowhere." 

"Did you just move here over the summer then?" 

"Yeah, something like that." 

Before I could inquire farther, the teacher got everyone's attention and started class. Not like there was anything important mentioned. We went over the syllabus like every other class had done so far. When she decided she was finished repeating everything we've heard the other two hours, she let us talk for the rest of the hour.  

I turned to Andy who was in his notebook doodling in whatever he didn't want me to see. I cleared my throat this time to get his attention.  

"What's your schedule look like for the rest of the day?" 

He scrambled around in a black binder for a second before pulling out a sheet of paper. "After this I have Spanish, lunch, gym, then physical science." 

I tried to hold back the laughter that bubbled up.  

"What?" He eyed me warily. 

I handed him my schedule. "Nothing, just, looks like we'll be seeing a lot of each other." His head nodded as the realization dawned on him. "Lockers next to each other and everything except first and second hour with each other. Hope we don't end up hating each other."  

He let out a shaky laugh to match my stronger one.  

"If you don't know anyone, you can feel free to sit next to me and my friends during lunch. All three of us. We aren't a large intimidating crowd." 

He smiled weakly at my joke. "I might just do that. I don't really know where we go to eat anyways." 

"I've only been there like once so it'll be an adventure. Did you bring a lunch with you?" 

"Yes...? Why would I not?" 

I blinked rapidly in confusion. "Um, there's lunch you can buy at the school. Some people prefer that, or they get free lunch or something." 

He cocked his head. "So they just.. Make you food. Do you get to request anything you want?" 

"Have you not been in public like ever? It works not to dissimilar to fast food. There's options to choose from, most of the time they're edible, if you're lucky it won't be cold or way too hot." 

"This sounds horrible. Why would you get the food there if its so bad?" His face contorted in disgust. 

I shrugged. "You forget food, some of it's good, more convenient. There's reasons." 

"I'll stick to my food from home." 

"Whatever floats your boat, man. I'd recommend having some money on your account for those fuck-up days that you might forget a lunch, but the lunch ladies are pretty forgiving. They will negative charge your account and then you can pay them back. At least that’s how it worked in middle school." 

His eyes widened when I cussed.  

"What?" I raised an eyebrow at him. 

"I-I'm not used to very liberal swearing." 

I patted his arm, noting how he went rigid when I touched him. "You'll get used to that real quick around here." 

We both jumped when the bell rung to signify the end of class.  

I eyed him as he scrambled to gather his things. I picked-up my singular binder and followed him into the crowd of people in the hall. I quickly lost sight of his brown hair in the mass of people. Shrugging, I went to my locker and grabbed my journal to draw in and hopefully pass some of the time of the next class.  

Andy was assigned to sit in front of me, so I spent most of the class staring at the pattern of his blue plaid shirt. His fingers continually drummed on the desktop while he sketched in his notebook. Every cough in the classroom made him jump nearly out of his seat. Despite what he likely wanted, he was drawing a lot of attention to himself. Several people were glancing over with disgruntled expressions with his constant noise.  

As the bell rang this time, I grabbed his arm so he didn't run off and disappear again.  

"Kid, you coming to lunch with me?" 

He pulled his arm out of my grasp with a sharp tug. "As long as you don't touch me." 

His words felt like a kick in the gut, but I forced a smile and laugh. "No problem. Come on, let's grab our bags, and I'll introduce you to everyone." 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the short update. It felt a lot longer writing it.   
> It's lunch time

It didn't take long for us to get down to the lunchroom. Andy was surprisingly good at navigating through crowds, and, with my directions, he got us there in nearly half the time I expected it to take. The lunchroom was just starting to have people file in, so we got choice pick of a table. Selecting one near the doorway, he and I took our seats in silence.   

 My mind reeled with trying to figure Andy out. I needed to know more about him if we were actually going to be friends. The poor soul didn't seem like he would make friends anywhere else either.  

 "What's your favorite food?" I blurted out.  

 He looked at me in alarm at my outburst. "Uh..." He put down the sandwich he was unpacking from his bag. "I dunno. Meatloaf?"  

 I raised an eyebrow. "Really? Meatloaf?   

 "What's wrong with meatloaf?"  

 "Nobody actually likes meatloaf. They eat it because their parents make it then drown it in ketchup."  

 "You put me on the spot! What was I supposed to say?"  

 "Not meatloaf!"  

 "Well, what's your favorite food then?" He leaned back in his seat and stared at me in exasperation opened my mouth to answer, but hesitated a moment. "Not as easy as you thought, huh?" He snickered. "Shush." I glared at him. "Raspberries."   

"I love raspberries." My friend Hope said while setting down her tray. "I only don't like getting all the little seeds out of my teeth." She looked up at Andy. "Who's he?" 

I sighed at her boldness. "Hope, this is Andy. Andy, Hope. He's new to the school, and also in like all my classes, and has a locker next to me. So I figured since I'm going to be seeing him like all the time anyway, might as well show him around and help him make some friends." 

She snorted. "You mean introduce him to me and Molly because those are the only people that you know." 

I rubbed the back of my neck. "Yeah, basically," I mumbled, not looking at Andy. When I finally did glance up a few moments later, he was shooting daggers at Hope. 

She didn't notice, though. She was already focused on diving into her tray of pasta. I was about to clear my throat and say something to dislodge the growing tension when two hands covered my eyes. 

"Guess who!" A voice sang out. 

"Hi, Molly." I responded. 

"Awe, you're no fun. How did you know it was me?" She pulled her hands away and sat down.  

"Because the only other person-- I'm sorry people-- she knows are already here." My cheeks burned brightly at Hope's sharp reply.  

Andy frowned and looked like he was about to respond, but Molly spoke first.  

"Who is the fresh blood?" She said jokingly. 

"This is Andy. Andy this is my other friend, Molly."  

"Pleasure." She offered her hand for him to shake, but he stared at it blankly. "That's fine I don't trust that other people wash their hands either!" She played off his unfriendliness.  

Hope scoffed a little, but didn't comment, choosing to be much more interested in her noodles.  

"How have classes been, has Mr. Lomer lived up to his rep?" I changed the subject.  

The conversation quickly devolved to trivial nonsense. Lunch ended much too soon and I had only finished half my meal.  

After stashing my leftovers away in my lunchbox, the four of us went to our fifth and then sixth hour of the day. After those two boring hours, I was finally stowing everything away in my locker.  

"Do you actually have homework?" I asked, eyeing Andy filling up his backpack.  

"No." He said simply and slung the bag over his shoulder.  

I waited for a reason, but he didn't offer one. "Sooooo why are you taking so much?"  

He looked at me perplexed. "Projects." 

"Anything to do with your notebook?" I trailed behind him as he walked away. 

"Maybe. Why do you want to know." 

I shrugged. "Curiosity." 

"Eh, not good enough reason."  

"What would be?" 

He turned to face me and looked me in the eye. "Life or death." He let that sit in the air for a few.moments before turning back around and continuing to walk away. He glanced over his shoulder breifly to shout, "It was nice to meet you, Emma!" Before disappearing into the throng of people congregating in the afterschool hallway.  


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talk of homecoming spreads

"How was school?" My mom asked, picking up her silverware.  
I swallowed hard.   
"It was fine."   
"Actual fine, or it was bad fine but I don't want to talk about it fine?" She gave me a serious look.  
"Fine fine. I think I made a new friend. At least I talked to someone new, so that's a start."   
"You talked to someone? New? You? You feeling okay honey?" My dad reached over to feel my forehead in mock concern.  
I batted his hand away. "Yes. We have like 5 hours of our day together plus lunch, so I see a lot of him. And we sit right next to each other in alphabetical order so."  
"I don't mean to be a stereotypical dad here, but he??"   
I rolled my eyes. "He's really quiet, and when I touched his arm he told me not to touch him. Like ever. So you literally have to reason to worry."   
"Could you have a date to homecoming...? My mom smiled.  
I looked at her incredulously. "What part of don't touch me mean homecoming? No. Plus, I'm probably not going. A ton of people I don't know crunched together in a small place sweating? No thank you." I took a big bite.  
"Well, what his name? What's he like?" My mother continued to press for info.  
I sighed and set down my fork. "His name is Andy. He's a socially awkward nerd who spoke a handful of sentences to me today. His favorite food is meatloaf. He has a secret notebook. I don't think he likes Hope. But she was in one of her moods today so I can't blame him."  
"Whose favorite food is meatloaf?" Dad whispered to himself.  
"THAT'S WHAT I SAID." I exclaimed.  
"Indoor voice, sweets." Mom chided.  
I chose not to respond and instead picked at my spaghetti. Dinner was pretty quiet the rest of the night, and I elected to go to bed early. School was exhausting.   
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
My jaws widened in a large yawn.   
"Only the second day of school and I'm already dead tired.” I mumbled to our lunch table. I stared with disinterest at my tuna sandwich.   
"You should go to bed earlier. I go to bed at 9:30 every night. A regular sleeping schedule is key to a good night's sleep."   
I shrugged at Hope's reply.   
"I HOPE you sleep well!" Molly exclaimed, gun fingers pointing at Hope, a dopey smile on her face.   
Hope huffed in response, but I cracked up.  
"That wasn't even original. You make that joke all the time." Hope crossed her arms.  
"So? It's funny every time. Even if I'm the only one who laughs, it's so worth it." Molly shrugged and took a big bite of her hamburger.   
I could nearly hear the grinding of Hope's teeth.   
"So, Andy! How's your second day?"  
"You've been with me all of it." He deadpanned.  
My smiled tightened. "They haven't."  
"Do they want to know?" Hope asked with a bored expression.  
I kicked her under the table and sent an apologetic look to Andy.  
"Owe what the fuck was that for? You know it's true."   
"Why are you being so rude to him?"  
"Why are you being so nice to him?" She countered.  
"Because I know what it's like to have no one!" My heart pounded and hands shook. I didn't dare look at Andy, I just grabbed my lunch box and ran out of the room.   
~~~  
I expected Andy to try and say something to me during one of our last two classes together, but he was silent as usual. Hope ignored me, too interested in her book to notice me. Molly spoke to me, thankfully. She cracked jokes and lightened up the whole atmosphere. Until she ducked down low and close to me and whispered, "You okay?"   
I shrugged in reply and smiled at her. Best not to make her worry.   
The next day Hope didn't even sit with us. She sat with some kids we had known for years and didn't like. Or rather they didn't like us. Looks like they seemed to recast their vote on Hope.   
Despite the lump in my throat, I felt when I saw her over there, that lunch period was the calmest that we'd had in years. No snarky or snide comments. Just jokes back and forth. It was... nice. I felt guilty thinking that. Hope had been my best friend since elementary school.   
The days flew by after that. Hope stayed away and Andy got more and more familiar with us. Actually cracking jokes at lunch-- his humor was warped and shaky at first, but he got the hang of it eventually. And whenever he would laugh really hard at one of our jokes, the vein in his neck would bulge like he was angry, but he wasn't. It was nerdy, but adorable. He was kind of adorable.   
"Emma?" He called my name one day at our locker just before third period.  
I responded with a low him and a tilt of my head.   
"What's this homecoming that everyone is talking about? There's posters and everything, but I just don't understand."  
I stared at h in disbelief for a moment. "I know you're homeschooled, but I didn't know you just lived under a rock. Are you really that sheltered?" His face contorted, and he shrugged at the accusation. I sighed and continued, "Homecoming is just supposed to be a celebration of coming back to school. There a whole spirit week of different dress-up days leading to a pep rally Friday, Homecoming parade and the football game also Friday, then the Saturday dance. It's a big deal. I'm mostly in it for the candy at the parade and the dress-up days though."  
He nodded in understanding. "Does everyone go to these events? This game and dance?"  
I searched for the words to explain. "No? A lot of people do. Both you need to buy tickets to go to, if that's what you're getting at. But a lot of people just don't want to partake in the social interaction. Myself included. I'm not the biggest fan of dances. Too many people, too hot, too much sweat." I shivered. "Gross."   
We sat in our desks, and he looked thoughtful as class began.  
"It sounds like a waste of time." He followed up on the conversation when we finished the lesson.  
I shrugged. "It gets people to school events and that's really what they want. They hate when we're all back at home."  
He seemed perplexed by that.   
\--  
"Mom, do you think homecoming is a waste of time?" I asked at dinner that night.   
My mother gave me a quizzical look. "Where did this come from?"  
I shrugged and pretended to be interested in my macaroni salad instead of looking at her. "Oh, just something that Andy said today."  
"Ohhh" she nodded as if she came to a wise understanding. "You do have a crush on him, and now he said it's pointless, and so you have no chance of going with him now if he doesn't want to." She shook her head. “Sad. I’m sorry honey.”  
My face grew hot. "No, that's not at all what it's like! He said it in a passing comment! I just wanted another's input is all! I don't like the dance either! Never have. God mom, you're jumping to conclusions."   
She chuckled. "No, honey. I don't think it's pointless. I went mostly with my friends back in highschool, and I had a good time. Only one dance did I ever had a date and, god, was that a disaster. Keep it simple, keep it fun."   
"Keep it safe." My dad tacked on with a comically somber look on his face. He couldn't keep it for more than a moment before cracking up. "In highschool I went out with dozens of girls-- and a couple guys-- and dances were always the best time to try and... Go forward... With your relationship."   
My mom made an offended noise and threw her napkin at him, which fell short by a good foot. He acted like it hit him anyways and nearly fell out of his chair.   
Somehow I'm related. I sunk in my seat.   
\-------  
The next day I walked up to our lockers, and Andy's just staring at the hunk of metal like it's his worst enemy.   
"You okay there?" I asked, already spinning my dial.  
He barely spared a glance my way before looking at his arm-- which had hastily written and now smeared ink on it-- and back to his locker. He attempted to put in his combo, I can only assume again judging by the twisted frustrated look on his face, only to fail and growl in confusion.   
"Here, let me help this time." He'd try to rip the door off if he kept increasing in anger. I reached for his arm--which I assumed had the combo written on it-- and he snatched it away giving me a hostile look. stubborn to the end.   
"Combo?" I sighed. He narrowed his eyes, but begrudgingly gave me a string of numbers in a low voice. It took me a couple tries, but I managed to get it open. I stood victoriously and smiled at him, but he all but shoved me out of the way to get to his stuff.   
"Okay, no need to be touchy bout it." I mumbled, mostly to myself. He set off by himself for class and I followed a few lengths behind him, struggling to keep up with his speed-- until he walked right past our class. "Andy" I called. He hesitated then turned around. I pointed to our room. "Class is right here?" He looked at his notebook and followed me into the room.   
This continued until lunch.   
"Yo, what the fuck?" I asked him as soon as we sat down.   
He started at me incredulously.  
"Excuse me?" He said flatly.  
"The fuck has been going on with you today?" I asked. "You couldn't open your locker or even remember the combo, you didn't wait for me to go to class, and you can’t remember where any of your classes are. Plus you're being a real dick. Also, where the fuck is your little secret journal? You normally keep that thing close as you can, but I haven't seen it anywhere today."  
He perked up at the end. "My what?"   
"That little journal you carry around? Its like crammed with notes and drawings? I dunno what of, you never let me see, but you've never been without it. It's like you have amnesia something."  
He laughed. "Oh, nothing as severe as that, I assure you. You're right though, I am not feeling well today. I suppose just a little spacy is all. I don't mean to be rude. Have you ever seen anything inside my journal?"  
His response seemed so formal compared to mine, it nearly gave me whiplash. "Uh, no. Never. Just a lot is in it, that's all I know."   
"I see." He looked deep in thought.  
Thankfully Molly was done grabbing her lunch, and I was saved from that disastrous interaction.  
\--  
When I got in the next day, Andy was already inside his locker.   
"Hey, you feeling better?" I asked immediately.  
He jumped at my sudden presence but responded, "Yeah. Yesterday was pretty rough, but hopefully I've passed the worst of it. Thanks for noticing."  
I smiled. "No problem."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tbh I love writing her dad. He's great. Both her parents are.   
> I don't think I said this before, but I have through chapter 6 written, but I'm going to keep posting at like 2 week intervals because I don't write fast and I don't want you guys to be waiting for years.   
> -Love u


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